KU News Release

Internationally known music therapist tapped as interim dean of School of Music

Alicia Clair

LAWRENCE — Alicia Ann Clair, professor of music education and music therapy, has been named interim dean of the new University of Kansas School of Music, effective July 1. Plans call for a national search for a permanent dean to launch in the fall.

“Alicia Clair has the vision and administrative skills to work with all music faculty in forming our new school,” said Provost Richard Lariviere. “During interviews, we were struck by Alicia’s keen ideas, enthusiasm and strong advocacy for the role of a music school, its faculty and students in a national research and teaching university.”

The School of Music emerged from a reorganization of KU fine arts programs, which was approved by the Kansas Board of Regents to go into effect July 1. The reorganization also forms a School of the Arts within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that will include the departments of theatre, film, dance and art, and moves the Department of Design to the School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

“I am honored to serve the university and its extraordinary music faculty during our transition as a full-fledged school,” Clair said.

At KU, Clair has held successive administrative posts as interim associate dean of fine arts in 2009, division director of music education and music therapy from 2005 to 2008 and coordinator of graduate studies in music education and music therapy from 2000 to 2005. For two years in the mid-1980s, she was associate dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and for the School of Education.

John Gronbeck-Tedesco, interim dean of fine arts whose term ends June 30, said Clair “has an enormously broad background, having studied both how to make music and what music does for people. The latter has become her specialty for which she is known internationally.”

Clair has been president of the American Music Therapy Association, a national organization from which she has received multiple awards, including the lifetime achievement award in 2003. Clair has consulted for organizations such as the National Alzheimer’s Association, the National Association of Music Merchants and the Yamaha Corporation of America, among others. She is author or co-author of 48 refereed journal articles, numerous articles and a book, “The Therapeutic Uses of Music for Older Adults,” which is in its second edition and is now published in Japanese and Korean.

Clair became a tenured member of the KU faculty after earning her doctorate in music education and music therapy from KU in 1979. She became a full professor in 1991.

The KU music faculty has world-class musicians and scholars whose careers have had a major impact on audiences and the field, and KU music programs are recognized nationally, Gronbeck-Tedesco said.

U.S. News and World Report ranked KU’s master’s of music program 26th among 575 musical institutions. KU music students have won top awards in national competitions such as the Naftzger Young Artists Auditions and Music Awards and Down Beat Magazine competitions. The KU music program is a charter member (1928) of the National Association of Schools of Music.

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